Playback of video on digital networks such as the Internet is becoming more prevalent. In addition to viewing digital video, some sites allow users to post comments about the video in a bulletin board, “blog,” chat, email or other web page-based format. For example, social networking sites typically allow viewers of a video to post their comments on a web page from which the video can also be viewed. The comments can be displayed in reverse chronological order (most recent first) in a list below the video. Once a viewer has watched the video the viewer can then read the comments and add a new comment, if desired.
Commercial sponsors or other third parties may have a desire to advertise or otherwise provide information in association with a video. Such ads typically include text or images placed near the video such as commercial text, banner ads, images, etc. In some cases, the advertisements may appear for a short time before the video is allowed to play. Or the advertisements may be placed in a small region along the bottom of the video or adjacent to the video while the video is playing. Typically, these advertisements are created by an ad agency and integrated with the video or with a web page that hosts playback of the video.
Although these approaches allow some user and third-party participation to communicate about, or in association with, video content, such communication is limited.